


i never was much of a romantic

by WattStalf



Series: Problematic OTP [19]
Category: Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: 30-Day Fic Meme, Canon Typical Everything, Drabble Series, F/M, General warning for these two being themselves, Rating May Change, Warnings May Change
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-10 10:31:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 5,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6980707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WattStalf/pseuds/WattStalf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>30 day challenge for my favorite Problematic OTP.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You were right about me

**Author's Note:**

> This thirty day challenge had some interesting prompts, so I decided to do it for the babies. I might do a general thirty day challenge for June, but this one is just kinda rolling from here on out.  
> Prompts are chapter titles.

Eddie looks down at Sally, looking up at him with disappointment and hurt and anger and he _knows_. He knows this is the end for them, again, and that this time, there's no coming back. There's no forgiveness. She gave him more than he ever deserved and he knows that and he knows that he's lost that because, just like always, he couldn't keep his mouth shut and he couldn't keep his temper in check.

And this time he's really lost her; this time, she was really his to lose. Before, he only  _thought_ he had her but this time, there was something there and now there isn't, and she's pregnant with his child and she doesn't care and she'd do it all alone before she'd let him back in.

He leaves, because, damn it, he knows he can't fix it this time, and maybe he never could. Maybe he could never fix anything in his life, and maybe he would always break his things because that's what big, careless, angry boys always do. He always broke everything because he wasn't  _careful_ and he didn't  _think_ and he played  _too rough_ , and he would  _never make friends with that attitude_ . He would always mess up whatever good thing came into his life, and now was no different.

 


	2. I was wrong about you

She hoped that if she kissed him hard enough and that if she didn't open her eyes and he never tried to say a word, she wouldn't feel quite so guilty. She hoped that if she pretended this weren't real and was nothing but a fantasy, and if she pretended that that fantasy didn't involve Eddie Blake, then maybe what they were doing together didn't count.

But then her eyes fluttered open and she pulled back from from their kiss and he murmured something about how beautiful she was, and she knew that this was real and that it was Eddie, and that she wouldn't have it any other way. She was married and she wasn't supposed to get this close to anyone, much less someone like Eddie. Someone dangerous and scary like Eddie, except he hadn't seemed like that even once since he'd told her he was sorry.

He wasn't the Eddie she knew anymore, and that terrified her, but only a little bit, and more than that, it drew her in until she was sure that she would never find her way out again.

 


	3. This cancels out the hurt

She knew better than to let him into her house. Eddie was dangerous and she'd learned that the hard way. She'd let herself get close to him back then because she'd really believed that the kid was all bark and no bite- or at least no bite with  _her_ , but then he'd lashed out and she had been the one to suffer for it. Her mistake and his failure, or was it the other way around?

But here he was, bigger and stronger than the last time he'd hurt her, and she'd let him in because there was something softer in his face. He'd always looked at her like she was the only girl in the world, but if she had to determine the difference between now and then, she'd say she felt less like a prize. Less hungered for, more revered.

Eddie wanted to make it clear to her that he'd changed, and he wanted to make things up to her and do whatever he could to make her happy. He didn't say a word about what he wanted  _from_ her, and that was where she faltered. That was where she decided that whatever it was he had tried to take from her before, he had earned now, and that was when she gave it to him.

 


	4. I need to want you

He was only sixteen, it was only natural. Every other man in America wanted her, and anyone who didn't had to be a goddamn queer. Sally Jupiter was perfect, she was everything every woman should have been, and Eddie was young and he had never really cared much about anything before, but now.

_Now_ .

Sally was right in front of him, and she was the prize everyone wanted to win, so of course he wanted to win that prize too. It was only natural, and he was only a boy, and he had to want the woman of everyone's dreams, the ultimate prize.

It wasn't until he wasn't sixteen anymore, and it was much too late, that he realized she had never been a prize at all, and he didn't know how to win.

 


	5. You can be like me

She never had to care so much what anyone thought about her, and he tried to show her that. He tried to show her that her life was her own, and that if someone didn't like what she did, then tough titties. It was her fucking choice, and to hell with what anyone thought.

But Sally was always caught up in her own image, even when her time in the spotlight had passed, and even when no one was looking, she always behaved as if someone might, at any moment. Of course she couldn't leave her husband and of course she couldn't be with _Eddie_ of all people. Just think about what the people might say about her! Never mind the fact that she was miserable with her husband and no longer gained anything by being with him, and never mind the fact that the people weren't saying _anything_ about her anymore.

He never cared about anything anyone said about him (except for her, but he tried to forget his one weakness). It didn't matter to him if half the country hated him, because he always managed to stay on top, and he did whatever he wanted. If she could let go like he could, he knew she would be happier, but she wouldn't listen to him. He knew that if she even cared half as much as him, things would be better.

Or maybe it was just him being selfish because he wanted her for himself.

 


	6. I want to need you

She never could have really been with him, but now that it's much too late for regrets, now that he's gone and she's been too old for romance for far too long, she realizes that it would have been nice to get her way, just once. To hell with any of the consequences; she just wishes she could have seen what it was like, to have Eddie for real, to have _something_ real. But she got along just fine without him, so she knew that she didn't really need him.

 


	7. Prove it

“I'm not the same man I was back then.”

“Then prove it.”

“I wouldn't do anything to hurt you now, ya know.”

“I'll believe it when I see it.”

“Sal, I would do absolutely anything for you.”

“So you say. I say, prove it.”

“Anything ya want. Just say the word.”

“Anything?”

“ _Anything_.”

 


	8. I'm cruel

Eddie hadn't expected her to start crying. Hell, he hadn't expected much of what had happened so far, but the crying had to be at the bottom of the list. She'd been angrier with him for visiting her than he'd expected, and then she'd given in to his apology a little quicker than he'd expected. They'd fallen into a comfortable conversation, catching one another up on their lives, and she'd joked about her miserable marriage to Schexnayder until she'd dissolved into tears.

Eddie wasn't well equipped to deal with something like this, and he'd awkwardly pulled her against his chest, patting her back and wondering what the hell he was supposed to say. He wasn't a nice guy, he wasn't a comforting guy, he wasn't supposed to be anyone's shoulder to cry on, but here was Sally, looking to _him_ for all of those things. There was some sort of hilarious irony somewhere in there, but he couldn't quite bring himself to laugh.

He wasn't the one she needed to hold her through this, he wasn't the gentle, caring man he knew that she deserved. At least one person came to mind who would have been better for this, but that didn't change the fact that he was the one she had chosen. Sally clung to him until she had gotten it all out, and he could only sit there and think about how bad he was at this. And then she pulled back and looked him in the eye before going for a kiss, and suddenly he didn't mind being the one she chose, even if he didn't deserve it.

 


	9. Always wondered what this'd be like

She's different than when he was a kid, but he still thinks she's the most beautiful woman in the city of New York. Hell, she can probably give the world a run for it's money, but he's never been that generous, not even for Sally. He won't admit that he loves her, that he's loved her for all these years, because he's afraid that if he does, she'll laugh in his face and then he'll feel sixteen all over again, and he knows that cannot lead anywhere good.

He's changed, but he's not sure how much and that scares him enough to want to anything and everything he can to make sure he isn't in a position to find out. Just as long as he doesn't mess up this time, just as long as he gets his chance, even if it's just this once. Even if he never sees her again, or even if she writes it off as a mistake when it's over, he just wants to know what he's been missing all these years. He won't admit he loves her, but he wonders if she can tell by the way he's really trying this time.

She's different from when he was a kid, but he thinks that it's better this way; he wouldn't have been able to appreciate her back then, he wouldn't have been able to keep from fucking it up. He's spent years wondering about her, but only now does he think he's truly ready.

 


	10. I'm broken

Eddie didn't cry, because, though he had ignored most lessons growing up, there was one that never left his mind. The age old lesson that he was going to be a man someday and that men didn't cry stuck with him, and he learned every other way in the book of expressing what he felt. He learned that laughter had more than one purpose, and he learned how satisfying it felt to lash out in rage, and he learned that sadness could be swallowed and replaced with either of those reactions.

So how was he supposed to handle himself when he watched Sally and Laurie drive away, knowing that the former hated him and that the latter didn't even know him, but would be taught to hate him soon enough? He didn't want either of them to hate him, he never wanted to hurt Sally, or lose her, and he never wanted to lose his only chance at a family. It was sad, and there was no other emotion that really worked in its place, but he wasn't even sure if he could cry at this point.

Heartbroken and just as unsure of how to show it as ever, Eddie found the first willing girl he could- and they were _always_ willing, he would _never_ try to cross that line again-and he told her bad jokes while she laughed a little too loudly, until he was laughing with her, and then he invited himself home with her, until he could start to forget why he wanted to cry in the first place, and he only almost called her Sally once.

 


	11. Thought I needed this

Waking up next to a woman with hair that looked much less red in the morning, with dark roots that were a lot more obvious when he was sober, only reminded Eddie that he was nowhere near over Sally, and that he probably never would be.

 


	12. I'm drunk

“Hello?” Eddie didn't know who would be calling him at this hour. It wasn't work; they always rang once, hung up, and called again. It had to be a wrong number, some drunk asshole calling the wrong man.

“Eddie?” Sally crooned, and he nearly dropped the phone in surprise. He was at least right about the drunk part. “S'that you?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, Sal, it's me.” He cleared his throat. “What are you...is there a reason you're callin' me?”

“Laurie moved out,” she moaned, sounding so pathetic that he felt a pang of sympathy for her, despite the fact that he knew all too well what it was like living without their daughter. “She moved in with that fuckin'...that freak, you know.”

He wasn't pleased to hear it, but he wasn't exactly surprised. At least according to the media, those two were just as hot and heavy as ever. “So?” he asked. “Why are you callin' me about it?”

“I'm lonely,” she cried. “I'm so fuckin' lonely, I don't...I don't know how this ever happened to me. I didn't used to...things used to be so much better.”

“I know,” he replied. He at least knew that they had been better for her, but he could count on one hand the amount of times he hadn't been alone. It was partially by choice, but there was still part of him that got lonely, and that was, he supposed, the part of him that still loved her. He was so tempted to ask her to come over, to see what would happen if he could convince her to give him one more chance.

But she was drunk, and he was more reluctant than he once would have been, because no matter what happened between them, it never ended well. He knew there was a chance that she would wake up the next morning, horrified, and throw him out, calling it a mistake, pretending that she'd never felt anything for him. Maybe she hadn't. Maybe he had always been in this one alone.

She was still talking when he hung up.

 


	13. I want to hurt you

_She doesn't want me_ .

His mind is clouded with anger, and the only thing that is clear is the sting her nails left on his cheek.

_She meant it when she said no_ .

Sally wasn't playing hard to get and that scratch was proof of that.

_She lead me on._

They'd spent so much time together lately, a few moments alone where she'd batted her lashes and made him really think that there was something between them, but all that falls away.

_She_ tricked _me._

His heartbeat isn't steady and his hands are shaking and she's standing in front of him, looking terrified.

_She_ hurt  _me._

He hasn't been this mad at any one in a long time, he's never been this mad at her before, and he cannot think clearly as he closes in on her.

 _Hurt her hurt her hurt her hurt her_ hurt her

He draws back a fist and it lands, solid, on her stomach.

 


	14. I'm awake and you're breathing

It didn't really register what she had done until she rolled over and took a long look at the man sharing her bed. For a long time, she had woken up next to the same man, over and over again, and she had always felt the same sense of dread mingled with boredom, the knowledge that this was her life now and that this was the person she had allowed herself to be stuck with. She wasn't happy with Larry and she wasn't satisfied with her life, but it was all she had.

It would have never occurred to her that she would wake up one day with Eddie Blake, and that the dread and boredom would be far from her mind as all she felt would be panic, and that that panic would be tinged with something else. She was almost content, maybe not with much, but it was the most content she had felt in a long time, and perhaps if she weren't in such a panic, she might have been able to enjoy it a little bit more.

As she tried to calm herself down, she thought about waking him up and throwing him out as quickly as possible. After all, what had happened between them was a mistake, had to be a huge, huge mistake, and the longer he stayed, the worse it would be for the both of them. She had to get rid of him before she could make anymore mistakes, before she let herself try to figure out why he had made her the happiest she had been in months.

But Eddie was still asleep, looking so goddamn peaceful considering who he was, and she found herself trying to match her breathing to his in her attempts to keep calm, and once their breathing was matched up nearly perfectly, she found she was too relaxed to do much of anything. Settling back down into bed with him, she was back asleep before she even knew it.

 


	15. This is my desperation in action

Her breath is hot on his neck and he can hear little gasps and whines, until she bites down on him to silence herself. Eddie hisses, but he doesn't really mind the pain, especially not from her. He doesn't really know why she's trying to be quiet, it's not there's any chance of them getting caught, but maybe she just doesn't want him to know just how badly she needed this. Maybe Sally can still pretend this doesn't mean anything for either of them.

Hell, maybe it doesn't and maybe he's just kidding himself by pretending this want meant to happen all along, that she's cared about him for as long as he's cared about her. Maybe she really is just doing this because she isn't getting any action at home and he's available. Maybe she's just desperate and maybe he's just a last-ditch effort. He wishes he gave more of a fuck, but when she's biting at his neck like that it's really hard to care what her motivations are.

 


	16. I want to break you

“Hurt me,” he says.

He stares up at her like she has all the power in the world, and she wonders if this is just to make it up to her, to make her forgive him for the past, or if he's always been this fucked up. But if there's one thing she does know, it's that he's tough, that he can take whatever she dishes out, that she could never _really_ hurt him.

“You asked for this,” she warns, playing the part she knows he wants her to play.

His eyes light up like she just presented him with a fucking birthday cake when she draws her hand back to slap him, and the next thing she knows, she's going back and forth with her hand and she can't stop. Her anger is directed at him and it isn't; she's getting him back for hurting her, but she's getting him back for _everyone_ hurting her, and everyone always trying to take advantage of everything she has to offer.

She'll never be able to hurt them all, but Eddie seems more than willing to pay for the sins of others, tilting his hips up to meet hers as her blows increase.

 


	17. Wish I didn't love you

He's fucking tired of getting misty eyed over that damn picture.

 


	18. I pity you

The first thing Eddie notices about Sally is that she has lines in her face that weren't there before, lines that she seems a little too young to have. Not that he cares, not that it makes her any less gorgeous, but it seems out of place on her, like she was never supposed to get old. Like this is all some cruel joke that got a little out of hand, but maybe motherhood is like that. He wouldn't know; he doesn't even know what fatherhood is like, and the baby she's holding is his.

The second thing he notices is that her eyes have practically gone dead. There's none of that spark, that life, that always drew him in before. She looks so goddamn unhappy that it's tragic, and the only reminder that her eyes could ever hold that sort of light is the fact that Laurie has her eyes, lit up with an innocence that Eddie can not remember ever possessing himself.

“What are you doing here?” she asks, tired.

“I just wanted to see Laurie. I was in the neighborhood, had some time off...”

“Eddie, we talked about this and we both agreed that it isn't a good idea for you to be a part of her life.” Sally looks bored with the conversation already, like she wishes she were anywhere but there. If he could, he'd take her away without a second thought.

“I know. I know that, I just...I just wanted to see her for a little bit. In an' out, I promise.” He's sure she only agrees because she doesn't have it in her to argue.

 

 


	19. This isn't about you at all

“I...” he starts, but he falls silent. If he tells her he loves her now, he knows that it won't change anything. He knows that it will only make himself look like he's trying to win her over in a new way, a last ditch effort to convince her to keep him. But she's made her intentions with him clear from the beginning, and if he tells her he loves her now, then he will be trying to make the situation about him.

“You what?” she asks. She looks as though she cares, as if she wants to know what he has to say, but he knows she won't if he tells her the truth.

“Nothing,” he says. “Not important.”

He knows that if he tells her the truth, there's a chance she'll remind him that this isn't about him, and whether she returns his feelings or not will never matter.

 


	20. I hate you, you bitch

He didn't _care_ how much he deserved Sally's rejection and he didn't care how much of a disaster they would have been together. Eddie didn't care about anything except the fact that he hadn't gotten his way, _again_ , and he felt just the way he did when he was sixteen and he'd finally gotten the nerve to go after her and she'd turned him down.

But this time, things were different. For one, he'd _had_ her, they'd been so _damn close_ , and now she was pushing him away. And for another thing, he was, at the very least, behaving a bit better about this. He hadn't hurt her this time, he had only lashed out verbally, but that had still only made the situation worse, only reaffirmed her thoughts about him, and now he was on his own again, and he fucking hated her.

He hated her so much for putting her through this again and again, and he didn't care if it was his fault or if he was being childish or if he deserved it or if they were no good for each other, he hated her because he loved her so fucking much, and he didn't know how to stop or how to do it right. And she was never going to give him the chance to figure that out.

 


	21. You'll do

He's just a kid. That's what Sally keeps reminding herself, but even if the Comedian _is_ just a kid, he's a kid so enamored of her that it does wonders for her ego. Not that she needed a boost, not that there aren't already plenty of men who look her way, but there's something different about Eddie that makes it seem special.

It's probably _because_ he's just a kid, and even if he looks at her with the same lust that every man in the universe does, there's such an innocence to it. She'd bet good money that he probably thinks himself in love with her, and that he probably sees her as some treasure to be obtained. She's used to men seeing her as various sorts of objects, so she finds this more charming than she might have otherwise. If she's going to be an object, she's going to be an object of value.

If she told Eddie to worship at her feet, she doesn't doubt that he would do it. It might take some coaxing- he did so love to play tough- but he would do it, and he'd likely do anything else she asked of him, but he is just a kid. She can't mess with him too much, and she knows that, but he's just such fun that toying with him becomes one of her favorite games. She begins to forget that, for a kid, he can be dangerous.

 


	22. I hate myself

Eddie couldn't bear to look at his reflection, but he couldn't bear the look away. The bandages had come off, and his face had “healed just fine”, according to the medic, but that didn't mean shit. So fucking what if he didn't get an infection or if half his face hadn't fallen off? Either way, there was a big, nasty scar that only made him uglier, and he wasn't exactly aging gracefully.

And still he stared at it, even though he wanted to forget it was there altogether. Just another thing he couldn't stand, another reminder of his own fuck-ups, a visible brand that let everyone know just how mean and dangerous he really was. He snarled at himself, and it was disgusting, and if he were really being honest with himself he would say that he deserved it.

The bitch had died for this, and compared to her, he'd gotten off easy. He deserved her mark, he deserved to have anyone who looked at him see exactly what sort of man he was. What was it people always said about being ugly on the inside and ugly on the outside? He was sure he fit that bill now.

The thing about Anh is he hadn't minded her company  _before_ she'd gotten pregnant. She wasn't bad looking, all things considered, and for a quick fuck to relieve the stress, she did great. But when she became more than that, when she was carrying his child, she became a problem. He  _had_ a child, and he had a mother for that child, and Anh was not Sally and the poor, dead fetus wasn't Laurie, and he never asked for a replacement family.

He wanted  _them_ so much that he couldn't be with  _her_ , and he would have done anything to make that go away, and he  _did_ do something to make it go away, except it hadn't really worked because he still knew what he did and his  _goddamn face_ was so  _goddamn ugly_ now. And maybe they'd been a replacement family, but he realized- too little, too late, like always- that it was the only chance he was going to get, because he would never have Sally back and he would never have Laurie.

What would they want with him and his ugly scar, anyway?

 


	23. You remind me of me

Laurie is so snarky sometimes that it makes Sally do a double take. She's never met her father, hardly knows anything about the Comedian, but sometimes she sounds so much like Eddie that it's scary. And yet, whenever she does this around anyone, they're always so quick to say, “She's you all over again, Sally.”

 


	24. I want you to hate me

She told Eddie he couldn't come around anymore and that he couldn't be a part of Laurie's life because she was scared of what would happen if anyone knew she had been with him. Sally was scared of what people would think of her, and she was scared of how they would look down on her, and her own feelings for him began to matter less to her than her own image, so she threw him out once and for all. And from that point on, she did what she could to try to make him hate her, but even then, she was never quite successful.

 


	25. You remind me of someone

Beautiful, eyes just like Sally's, a flirtatious grin that was, at the very least taught, if not inherited. Laurie isn't a spitting image by any stretch of the imagination, but she's Sally's girl, alright. She's Sally's girl, and she's giving that smile out just like Sally always would, and Eddie actually has to remind himself that she's his girl too. That she isn't her mother, and that she _is_ his daughter, and he feels disgusted with himself. He's always been a dog when it comes to women, he knows, but _this_. Even he isn't going to let himself be _this_ terrible.

But when she comes up to him like she's got someone she wants to impress, like she's got something to prove by flirting with him, he almost falters just because of how much her face reminds him of her mother. He doesn't want _Laurie_ , but he wants _someone_ , and it's so fucking hard to remind himself just which one is leaning in for a light, looking at him like he's something special.

 


	26. I can be like you

Eddie didn't know who he was kidding, trying to pretend like there could ever be something between him and Sally. She had been out of his league from the beginning, and even when she gave him the time of day, it was hard to forget that he was miles behind her, that he wasn't ever quite going to be on her level. They were of entirely different worlds, after all, and he couldn't really be a part of hers.

Not unless he became someone different, and how could he hope to change this late in the game? You couldn't teach an old dog new tricks, no matter how much that old dog wanted to impress his mistress, and even if she did the unthinkable and left her husband for him, Eddie wasn't sure if he would ever look right, having someone like Sally Jupiter on his arm.

Maybe if he dressed differently, changed the way he spoke, found a new line of work, found a way to match her perfectly. If he could just pretend to fit into her world, maybe there could be something between them. All he wanted was to fix whatever kept him so far behind, what put her on a level that he couldn't hope to reach.

 


	27. Author's Choice (Eyes)

His eyes aren't exactly blue, but they're not _not_ blue. Somewhere between blue and gray; she thinks the color is called slate, but she isn't sure, and she isn't sure why it really matters. Whatever they are, Laurel didn't get them. Laurie's eyes are bright, more blue than green, but with hints of both, just like Sally's. It's hard to tell what her face is like right now, but her features seem to reflect Sally's as well, right down to the same beauty mark on her cheek.

Laurie is her daughter, through and through. She's the most gorgeous baby Sally's ever seen, and she's sure that that isn't just motherly pride speaking, and she can almost pretend that the baby actually belongs to the man they're claiming is the father. After all, the fuzz on her head is dark, and Larry has dark hair.

But her hair will grow out someday, and it won't be the same texture as Larry's, and Sally will have to hope that no one questions it, that no one notices a detail that small, and that she can keep her moment of weakness to herself. It really does seem like she got lucky, that Laurie doesn't resemble her father much at all. She feels as though she's gotten away with something; Larry knows, but he won't end the marriage unless she continues the affair, and nobody else knows what she did.

She feels like she's gotten away with something until the first time Laurie smiles, and she can only see Eddie.

 


	28. Author's Choice (You make me feel so young)

When Eddie was sixteen, he hated the way Sally made him feel like a kid, but years later, she loved the way he made her feel young again.

 


	29. Author's Choice (Last regrets)

Your life is supposed to flash before your eyes when you die; Eddie knows that it's all over for him, and even though he puts up a token fight, it doesn't mean anything. He's already given up, already gave up a long time ago. And he could waste his last minutes thinking about what lead him to this point, agonizing over the things he's seen and the things that he knows are to come, but he's spent enough time thinking about that, and even if it he is dying prematurely, he's had a long and full life.

He thinks about the first time he put on a costume and the first real criminal he busted. He thinks about joining the Minutemen and he thinks about joining the army. He thinks about being recruited for his government job and he thinks about the falls of the other heroes while he remained standing, and he _always_ remained standing. At least up until now, but as far as falls go, he supposes he managed to delay his long enough.

Most of all, however he thinks about Sally, from the first time he laid eyes on her to the last, and every moment in between. There's that same old regret that he doubts he'll even be free of in death, because he made too many mistakes with her. He hurt her so badly, time and again, and he let her go when he should have found some sort of way to make things work. Eddie hasn't seen her in a very, very long time, but he takes comfort in the fact that the last time they spoke, she said that she forgave him.

Laurie never will, he's sure, and she'll never know the truth and she could die very soon because he isn't strong enough to protect her. She is the only person in the world as important to him as Sally, and he has only spoken to her a handful of times. His regrets where she is concerned are so much greater, but greatest of all is that he never had the chance to finish the letter he was writing for her.

 


	30. Author's Choice (Love)

“You ever think about what could have been?” she asks him. They're too old for secret affairs, too old to be going back to this, but that didn't stop them from ending up here, and Sally asks him this as they together after the fact.

“You've got no idea,” he replies. “I just always figured this meant more to me than it ever did to you.”

“You might be right,” she says, but his heart doesn't break to hear it, which means he must have made some progress somewhere along the road. “Or at least you were. I don't know about...now.”

“Is that why you came back for more?”

“What if it is?”

“I never told you that I loved you, Sal,” Eddie says, and it really is the first time he's admitted it out loud.

“I could tell.” He sighs when she says this, because he had thought he'd been good at keeping secrets, or at least that one. “I just never knew that I loved you.”

“Do you?” he asks, keeping his voice even, because he does not dare to hope too much.

“I do,” she replies, and it is all that he has ever wanted to hear from her, and everything that ever went wrong between them, every mistake and every time he hurt seems worth it just to finally hear it from her. “Somewhere in there, I fell in love with you too.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course I ended it with fluff.


End file.
